Over 5,000 artifacts dating back to the turn of the 19th century were recently found below 40 Fulton Street. DNAinfo reports that the items—which include bottles, gravy boats, dinner plates, and imported Chinese porcelain—were found when Con Ed was replacing a steam pipe from 1900. "We initially saw part of what appeared to be a wall," archeologist Alyssa Loorya said. "Then we realized the wall was continuing, and we started to see the artifacts." Archeologists are urged to visit a certain apartment in the Lower East Side, where they can examine a pathetic hot water heater that surely dates back to the 1700s.
Loorya, who works for Chrysalis Archaeological Consultants, believes the artifacts once belonged to the former owners of the house before moving around 1825. It's also possible that the Van Cortlandt family—the lineage of the first native-born governor of New York, Stephanus van Cortlandt, owned the house and used the items. "It really creates a picture of what the historic area was, what life was like," Loorya says. What might future archeologists find at 40 Fulton Street 200 years from now? Some yogurt-covered pretzels and a petrified copy of the Duane Reader.
